bigrat(3)

NAME

       bigrat - Transparent BigNumber/BigRational support for Perl

SYNOPSIS

         use bigrat;

         $x = 2 + 4.5,"\n";                    # BigFloat 6.5
         print 1/3 + 1/4,"\n";                 # produces 7/12

DESCRIPTION

       All operators (inlcuding basic math operations) are overloaded. Integer
       and floating-point constants are created as proper BigInts or
       BigFloats, respectively.

       Other than bignum, this module upgrades to Math::BigRat, meaning that
       instead of 2.5 you will get 2+1/2 as output.

       Modules Used

       "bigrat" is just a thin wrapper around various modules of the
       Math::BigInt family. Think of it as the head of the family, who runs
       the shop, and orders the others to do the work.

       The following modules are currently used by bignum:

               Math::BigInt::Lite      (for speed, and only if it is loadable)
               Math::BigInt
               Math::BigFloat
               Math::BigRat

       Math Library

       Math with the numbers is done (by default) by a module called
       Math::BigInt::Calc. This is equivalent to saying:

               use bigrat lib => 'Calc';

       You can change this by using:

               use bigrat lib => 'BitVect';

       The following would first try to find Math::BigInt::Foo, then
       Math::BigInt::Bar, and when this also fails, revert to Math::Big-
       Int::Calc:

               use bigrat lib => 'Foo,Math::BigInt::Bar';

       Please see respective module documentation for further details.

       Sign

       The sign is either '+', '-', 'NaN', '+inf' or '-inf'.

       A sign of 'NaN' is used to represent the result when input arguments
       are not numbers or as a result of 0/0. '+inf' and '-inf' represent plus
       respectively minus infinity. You will get '+inf' when dividing a posi-
       tive number by 0, and '-inf' when dividing any negative number by 0.

       Methods

       Since all numbers are not objects, you can use all functions that are
       part of the BigInt or BigFloat API. It is wise to use only the bxxx()
       notation, and not the fxxx() notation, though. This makes you inde-
       pended on the fact that the underlying object might morph into a dif-
       ferent class than BigFloat.

       Cavaet

       But a warning is in order. When using the following to make a copy of a
       number, only a shallow copy will be made.

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               $x = $y = 7;

       If you want to make a real copy, use the following:

               $y = $x->copy();

       Using the copy or the original with overloaded math is okay, e.g. the
       following work:

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x + 1, " ", $y,"\n";     # prints 10 9

       but calling any method that modifies the number directly will result in
       both the original and the copy beeing destroyed:

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x->badd(1), " ", $y,"\n";        # prints 10 10

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x->binc(1), " ", $y,"\n";        # prints 10 10

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               print $x->bmul(2), " ", $y,"\n";        # prints 18 18

       Using methods that do not modify, but testthe contents works:

               $x = 9; $y = $x;
               $z = 9 if $x->is_zero();                # works fine

       See the documentation about the copy constructor and "=" in overload,
       as well as the documentation in BigInt for further details.

       Options

       bignum recognizes some options that can be passed while loading it via
       use.  The options can (currently) be either a single letter form, or
       the long form.  The following options exist:

       a or accuracy
         This sets the accuracy for all math operations. The argument must be
         greater than or equal to zero. See Math::BigInt's bround() function
         for details.

                 perl -Mbigrat=a,50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'

       p or precision
         This sets the precision for all math operations. The argument can be
         any integer. Negative values mean a fixed number of digits after the
         dot, while a positive value rounds to this digit left from the dot. 0
         or 1 mean round to integer. See Math::BigInt's bfround() function for
         details.

                 perl -Mbigrat=p,-50 -le 'print sqrt(20)'

       t or trace
         This enables a trace mode and is primarily for debugging bignum or
         Math::BigInt/Math::BigFloat.

       l or lib
         Load a different math lib, see "MATH LIBRARY".

                 perl -Mbigrat=l,GMP -e 'print 2 ** 512'

         Currently there is no way to specify more than one library on the
         command line. This will be hopefully fixed soon ;)

       v or version
         This prints out the name and version of all modules used and then
         exits.

                 perl -Mbigrat=v

EXAMPLES

               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print sqrt(33)'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 2*255'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 4.5+2*255'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 3/7 + 5/7 + 8/3'
               perl -Mbigrat -le 'print 12->is_odd()';

LICENSE

       This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

       Especially bignum.

       Math::BigFloat, Math::BigInt, Math::BigRat and Math::Big as well as
       Math::BigInt::BitVect, Math::BigInt::Pari and  Math::BigInt::GMP.

AUTHORS

       (C) by Tels <http://bloodgate.com/> in early 2002 - 2005.

perl v5.8.8                       2006-06-14                         bigrat(3)